text:
Top names at Chichester Speakers Festival
Martin Bell
Published: 08:40 Thursday 01 November 2018
Tickets are now on sale for the latest Chichester Speakers Festival.
Festival manager Marc Rattray said: "We have gathered together some of the best speakers in the UK, and we hope you like the programme."
The festival runs on November 16 and 17 at The Assembly Rooms in North Street, Chichester (www.chichesterspeakersfestival.com).
Among the sessions:
· Mark Austin, former ITV Newscaster and the present US correspondent for Sky News, gives the stories behind his 30 years of reporting for ITN from the world's hotspots.
· Angela Eagle and Imran Ahmed, the shadow minister/chairman of Labour's NEC and political advisor to senior Labour politicians respectively, talk about the new serfdom in British society.
· Helen Pankhurst, the great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, tells the story of the fight for women's rights
· Sam Willis and James Daybell, the BBC TV presenter and professor at Plymouth University respectively, chart the greatest war in the age of sail when 13 isolated American colonies began a war against Britain – the greatest naval and military power on earth.
· Lt General Ben Hodges, former Commanding General, US Army in Europe, is interviewed by Andrew Monaghan about defence and collective responses to Russian foreign policy.
· A C Grayling explains why democracy has failed in the UK and the US and what we can do to put it right.
· Peter Hain, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, leader of the House of Commons and anti-apartheid activist, chronicles the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela
· Martin Bell, the former BBC war reporter, gives an account of his 50 years as a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places.
· Louis de Bernieres, the best-selling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, explains his new book about a couple's troubled marriage between the wars.
Dad's Army will be remembered at this year's Petworth Festival
· Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the Observer, looks at the pivotal changes which were forged in 1947-48,which led to the cold war and defined the world post-war era.
· Gregory Claeys, a leading historian of socialism, throws light on Marxism and what it might teach us.
To book tickets and for more information, http://www.chichesterspeakersfestival.com or ring the booking line on 0333 666 3366.
https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/music/chichester-symphony-orchestra-on-fine-form-1-8686013
http://https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/music/the-breath-promise-bewitching-collection-of-songs-as-they-play-brighton-1-8686540
https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/music/talented-performers-from-yehudi-menuhin-school-to-raise-funds-for-seriously-ill-sussex-youngsters-1-8686490
https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/arts/poets-from-across-the-south-downs-converge-to-commemorate-armistice-centenary-1-8686632
https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-and-comedy/old-fashioned-pleasures-in-revival-of-classic-whodunnit-on-portsmouth-stage-1-8686366
https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-and-comedy/arundel-players-celebrate-the-genius-of-the-late-neil-simon-1-8686075
https://www.worthingherald.co.uk/whats-on/three-operas-in-one-evening-in-southwick-1-8686471
https://www.worthingherald.co.uk/whats-on/music/worthing-schools-unite-for-worthing-sings-live-2018-1-8686478
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Ride for Jim
Jim's Story
The Fellowship
In the summer of 1983 Jim was hired to work in Dr. Jack Haar's research laboratory at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University. Jim had just graduated from the University of Richmond. He was a bright-eyed young man, eager to work hard in the lab and learn all he could about the ongoing research. The lab was focused on understanding the development of the immune system to develop therapies that might help correct errors that occur in various conditions.
Jim quickly meshed into the group of graduate students working in the lab. In addition to being very bright he was a gifted athlete. As a result, experiments were often timed to schedule the incubation period around noon so he and Dr. Haar could go off to the gym for a game of squash or racquetball while waiting on lab results. Jim usually won, but if asked how the game went he would manage to make it sound as if it was a close match or that he had learned from his opponent.
He applied to the medical school and was accepted the next year but continued working in the lab throughout his medical training. During that time Dr. Haar was involved in a collaborative research project with Dr. Leonard Schultz at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. It required him to spend part of the summer of 1984 in the lab in Maine. Jim accompanied Dr. Haar and his family on the trip. In the process he bonded with Dr. Haar's two sons who were 7 and 10 at the time. While his wife, Nancy, prepared dinner, Dr. Haar and the boys and would run with Jim in the evening. After the run they would eat together at their cottage enjoying lobster and good conversation.
The next year Jim was hired again to work on the project at Jackson Lab for the whole summer and his efforts resulted in a couple of research publications. He was the star of the Jackson Lab baseball team, and lived with a number of other summer students at "High Seas", an early twentieth century 'cottage' which is actually a huge mansion overlooking the sea. He would often remark that it was one of the best summers of his life.
Jim graduated from medical school in 1988 and went off to do a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Florida ultimately specializing in Rheumatology. He married Barbra Spengeman whom he met as a fellow medical resident in Anesthesiology. Over the next nine years they were blessed with five children: a daughter Nicole and four sons, Brent, Reed, Kyle and Grant.
In the early spring of 2006 Dr. Haar hosted a reunion of the group that had been in his lab in the mid-1980's. Along with the others, Jim was invited to come for a weekend in April. Jim was excited about the prospect of seeing the "lab bunch" after several years and was eager to see if he could arrange a trip around his family's busy schedule.
Several weeks later Jim was diagnosed with a high grade malignant sarcoma in his hamstring. Due to the start of chemo and radiation treatment he would not be able to attend the reunion. He exchanged email messages with Dr. Haar over the next year and a half, and Dr. Haar and his wife went to Florida in February of 2007 to see Jim and his family.
In May of 2007 Jim and his brother, Mark, flew to Boston for a consult with a doctor at Dana Farber Cancer Center. Due to inclement weather all flights out of Boston were cancelled when they were schedule to fly home. They would not be able to leave by plane for three days so they decided to rent a car and drive back. At exactly the time that they were passing through Fredericksburg, Virginia, Dr. Haar called Jim on his cell phone just to check on him. Learning of their trip, he quickly arranged for them to stop at his house and immediately left work to meet up with them. They spent that afternoon together and Jim was in high spirits. Later that day they were successful in finding a flight out of Richmond. In all of their conversations after that they marveled at the miracle of Dr. Haar calling at exactly the moment they were only 30 minutes from Richmond. It was the last time they would see each other. Jim passed away August 25, 2007 at age 45.
Jim was an amazing person. He pushed himself to succeed and to do his best at everything. He was an incredible athlete at tennis, baseball, squash, racquetball, running and any other sports he attempted. Jim was very competitive, but only to see how good he could be, not in a mean-spirited way to defeat his opponent. He always had a smile and kind comment for everyone. His first love was his family, but he was also a dedicated physician. Jim was devoted to his patients. All of them adored him, as testified by the pages and pages of condolences posted by them. Throughout his illness and endless treatments he continued seeing his patients for half days, including the morning the day before he died. That was the kind of dedicated caring human being Jim was.
James D. Popp was a dear friend, a trusted physician, and most of all a beloved father and husband.
P.O. Box 980214 Richmond, Virginia 23298
Benefits the James D. Popp Student Research Fund
Copyright © 2023 Ride for Jim. All rights reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NC Supreme Ct.
State of North Carolina v. Zachary David Thomsen
Supreme Court of North Carolina.
No. 308A15
Decided: August 19, 2016
Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Anne M. Middleton, Assistant Attorney General, for the State. Bruce T. Cunningham, Jr., Southern Pines, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant Zachary David Thomsen pleaded guilty to rape of a child by an adult offender and to sexual offense with a child by an adult offender, both felonies with mandatory minimum sentences of 300 months. See N.C.G.S. §§ 14–27.2A, –27.4A (2013). Pursuant to a plea arrangement, the trial court consolidated the convictions for judgment and imposed a single active sentence of 300 to 420 months. After imposing the sentence, the court immediately granted its own motion for appropriate relief and vacated the judgment and sentence. It concluded that, as applied to defendant, the mandatory sentence violated the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court then sentenced defendant to 144 to 233 months, pursuant to the Structured Sentencing Act. See id. § 15A–1340.17(c), (f) (2015).
The State did not file a notice of appeal. Instead, it petitioned the Court of Appeals for a writ of certiorari to review the trial court's order granting defendant appropriate relief. Defendant filed a response arguing that the Court of Appeals had already decided in State v. Starkey, 177 N.C.App. 264, 628 S.E.2d 424, cert. denied, ––– N.C. ––––, 636 S.E.2d 196 (2006), that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to review a trial court's sua sponte grant of appropriate relief, either by the State's appeal or by writ of certiorari. The Court of Appeals allowed the State's petition and issued the writ. In his merits brief before that court, defendant again argued that the court lacked jurisdiction. The State responded that, by issuing the writ, the court had already ruled that it had jurisdiction, and that it would violate the law of the case doctrine articulated in North Carolina National Bank v. Virginia Carolina Builders, 307 N.C. 563, 299 S.E.2d 629 (1983), if another Court of Appeals panel overruled that decision.
In a divided opinion, the Court of Appeals agreed with the State. See State v. Thomsen, ––– N.C.App. ––––, ––––, 776 S.E.2d 41, 48 (2015). The court held that it was bound by the petition panel's decision on jurisdiction and could not address it anew. Id. Addressing the merits, the court held that defendant's original sentence of 300 to 420 months did not violate the Eighth Amendment. Id. at ––––, 776 S.E.2d at 50. The court then vacated defendant's sentence and the trial court's order granting appropriate relief, and remanded the case for a new sentencing hearing. Id. A dissenting opinion maintained that the opinion panel was not bound by the petition panel's decision on jurisdiction, and that the Court of Appeals did not have jurisdiction to issue the writ of certiorari that the State sought. See generally id. at ––––, 776 S.E.2d at 50–55 (McGee, C.J., dissenting). Defendant appealed to this Court on the basis of the dissenting opinion.
We therefore must address whether the Court of Appeals has subject-matter jurisdiction to review, pursuant to the State's petition for writ of certiorari, a trial court's grant of its own motion for appropriate relief. "We review issues relating to subject matter jurisdiction de novo." State v. Oates, 366 N.C. 264, 266, 732 S.E.2d 571, 573 (2012).
The North Carolina Constitution provides that "[t]he Court of Appeals shall have such appellate jurisdiction as the General Assembly may prescribe." N.C. Const. art. IV, § 12(2). The General Assembly has exercised this constitutional authority in N.C.G.S. § 7A–32(c) by giving the Court of Appeals "jurisdiction ․ to issue the prerogative writs, including ․ certiorari, ․ to supervise and control the proceedings of any of the trial courts of the General Court of Justice." N.C.G.S. § 7A–32(c) (2015). This statute empowers the Court of Appeals to review trial court rulings on motions for appropriate relief by writ of certiorari unless some other statute restricts the jurisdiction that subsection 7A–32(c) grants. See State v. Stubbs, 368 N.C. 40, 42–43, 770 S.E.2d 74, 76 (2015). In other words, because the state constitution gives the General Assembly the power to define the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals, only the General Assembly can take away the jurisdiction that it has conferred. Subsection 7A–32(c) thus creates a default rule that the Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to review a lower court judgment by writ of certiorari. The default rule will control unless a more specific statute restricts jurisdiction in the particular class of cases at issue.
In State v. Stubbs, we addressed whether the Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to review a trial court's grant of a defendant's motion for appropriate relief by writ of certiorari. Id. at 41, 770 S.E.2d at 75. The State filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Court of Appeals, seeking review of the trial court's grant of appropriate relief for which the defendant had moved under N.C.G.S. § 15A–1415. Id. at 41–43, 770 S.E.2d at 75–76. We noted that another statute, N.C.G.S. § 15A–1422(c), specifically addresses review of trial court rulings on section 15A–1415 motions for appropriate relief. Id. at 42–43, 770 S.E.2d at 76. But subsection 15A–1422(c), we concluded, contains no "limiting language ․ regarding which party may appeal a ruling" on a motion for appropriate relief that would alter the "broad powers" of review by certiorari that subsection 7A–32(c) grants. Id. at 43, 770 S.E.2d at 76. Importantly, we were not concerned with whether subsection 15A–1422(c) provided an independent source of jurisdiction for the Court of Appeals to issue the writ. See id. Rather, we focused on the absence of language in subsection 15A–1422(c) that would limit the court's review. See id. Finding none, we held that the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to issue the writ. Id.
The sole relevant difference between Stubbs and this case is that the trial court here granted appropriate relief on its own motion rather than on defendant's. See Thomsen, ––– N.C.App. at ––––, 776 S.E.2d at 43. A defendant may move for appropriate relief under subsection 15A–1415(b)(4) if he "was convicted or sentenced under a statute that was in violation of the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of North Carolina." N.C.G.S. § 15A–1415(b)(4) (2015). We recognized in Stubbs that the State can seek review by certiorari from a "ruling on a motion for appropriate relief pursuant to G.S. 15A–1415." Stubbs, 368 N.C. at 43, 770 S.E.2d at 76 (quoting N.C.G.S. § 15A–1422(c) (2015)). N.C.G.S. § 15A–1420(d), in turn, provides that "[a]t any time that a defendant would be entitled to relief by motion for appropriate relief, the court may grant such relief upon its own motion." N.C.G.S. § 15A–1420(d) (2015). But section 15A–1422 does not mention review of relief granted "pursuant to" subsection 1420(d). So the parties disagree on whether the trial court's sua sponte motion was "pursuant to" subsection 15A–1415(b) or "pursuant to" subsection 15A–1420(d), as both were necessary here to give the trial court the authority to grant relief on its own motion.
We ultimately do not need to decide this question because, in either case, the Court of Appeals would have jurisdiction to issue the writ. If the trial court made its motion "pursuant to" subsection 15A–1415(b), then the holding in Stubbs directly controls. But even if the trial court made its motion "pursuant to" subsection 15A–1420(d), the Court of Appeals still has jurisdiction because nothing in the Criminal Procedure Act, or any other statute that defendant has referenced, revokes the jurisdiction in this specific context that subsection 7A–32(c) confers more generally.
Section 15A–1422 includes a number of provisions that address appellate review of rulings on motions for appropriate relief, but makes no mention of subsection 15A–1420(d) or sua sponte motions. In defendant's view, this means that the Court of Appeals lacks jurisdiction to review sua sponte grants of relief. But, as discussed above, just the opposite is true. The absence of "limiting language," Stubbs, 368 N.C. at 43, 770 S.E.2d at 76, regarding review of sua sponte motions means that the jurisdiction prescribed by subsection 7A–32(c) remains unchanged. We therefore hold that the Court of Appeals had subject-matter jurisdiction to issue a writ of certiorari in this case.
The presence of provisions in section 15A–1422 that limit the Court of Appeals' jurisdiction to review motions for appropriate relief in other contexts confirms that the General Assembly knows how to restrict that court's jurisdiction when it elects to do so. For example, subsection (b) states that "[t]he grant or denial of relief sought pursuant to G.S. 15A–1414 is subject to appellate review only in an appeal regularly taken." N.C.G.S. § 15A–1422(b) (2015) (emphasis added). Subsection (d) states that "[t]here is no right to appeal from the denial of a motion for appropriate relief when the movant is entitled to a trial de novo upon appeal." Id. § 15A–1422(d) (2015) (emphasis added). And subsection (f) attempts to limit the jurisdiction of this Court, stating that "[d]ecisions of the Court of Appeals on motions for appropriate relief that embrace matter set forth in G.S. 15A–1415(b) are final and not subject to further review by appeal, certification, writ, motion, or otherwise." Id. § 15A–1422(f) (2015), invalidated in part as stated in State v. Blackwell, 359 N.C. 814, 618 S.E.2d 213 (2005), vacated in part on other grounds by State v. Blackwell, 361 N.C. 41, 638 S.E.2d 452 (2006), cert. denied, 550 U.S. 948, 127 S.Ct. 2281, 167 L.Ed.2d 1114 (2007). In contrast, the conspicuous absence of any mention in section 15A–1422 of either subsection 15A–1420(d) or sua sponte motions compels the conclusion that the Court of Appeals lawfully issued the writ of certiorari in this case.
Finally, defendant argues that the Court of Appeals was not authorized by Rule 21 of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure to issue the writ of certiorari in this case. But, as we explained in Stubbs, if a valid statute gives the Court of Appeals jurisdiction to issue a writ of certiorari, Rule 21 cannot take it away. Stubbs, 368 N.C. at 43–44, 770 S.E.2d at 76 (quoting N.C. R. App. P. 1(c) ("These rules shall not be construed to extend or limit the jurisdiction of the courts of the appellate division as that is established by law.")). To the extent that State v. Starkey holds otherwise, it is overruled.
The parties have briefed a second issue—namely, whether the decision by the Court of Appeals petition panel to issue the writ constituted a ruling on jurisdiction that bound the subsequent opinion panel. Because we have addressed the underlying subject-matter jurisdiction question de novo, however, this additional issue is now moot. We also express no opinion on whether the State had a right pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A–1445(a)(3)(c) to appeal the trial court's grant of appropriate relief. In a footnote in its brief before the Court of Appeals, the State argued that it did, but it has abandoned that argument in this Court. In any event, the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to issue the writ of certiorari that the State sought. We therefore affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.
MARTIN, Chief Justice.


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PATCO enhancing electronic fare system
by Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted: June 9, 2011
Higher tech is coming to PATCO.
Starting next week, passengers on the commuter rail line will be able to manage their electronic fare cards on the Internet, and by September, they will be able to use a credit card, instead of the PATCO-only card, to pay their fares.
Tolls could clear Route 422 clogs
SEPTA engineers resist wearing fluorescent vests
Brookings study finds Philadelphia mediocre on public transit
by Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer
About 70 percent of PATCO riders use the agency's Freedom card, an electronic "smart" card introduced in 2007. On Monday, PATCO will launch an online system that will permit users to add value to the cards and view their transaction histories. The system will be available at www.patcofreedomcard.org
Later this month, PATCO will begin tests for a one-year pilot program for credit-card fare payment. That will make PATCO among the first transit agencies in the nation to have such capabilities across its system.
"A lot of eyes will be on our operation," Cheryl Spicer, assistant general manager of PATCO, said Wednesday at a meeting of the board of PATCO's parent, the Delaware River Port Authority.
Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego, which installed the Freedom card system, is upgrading PATCO's fare gates to read bank cards that have an embedded electronic chip.
The pilot program will allow Cubic to test an "open-payment" system designed to free customers from the need to buy a transit card. Instead, they could pay fares with bank-issued credit, debit, or prepaid cards. Transit systems around the country, including SEPTA and NJ Transit, are moving toward open-payment systems.
The demonstration project on PATCO's 14-mile line between Lindenwold and Center City will give Cubic a working system on which to test its technology.
Cubic will pay the cost of upgrading PATCO's gates and computer operating system, as well as the transaction fees charged by cardholders' banks. The upgrades are worth about $680,000 to PATCO.
In the first six months of the pilot, starting in September, Bancorp Inc. of Wilmington will market reloadable prepaid PATCO Visa cards through area merchants. They could be used for travel on PATCO or for purchases at any merchant that accepts Visa.
During the second six months, any "contactless" bank cards with an electronic chip also would be accepted by the PATCO readers. Contactless cards are marked with an icon that resembles a radio wave.
After a year, the pilot is scheduled to end, and the Visa-reading capability of the gates would be disabled.
The program could be continued, but PATCO would have to pay transaction fees for each contactless payment.
Those fees could be prohibitive for the relatively small agency. But if neighboring transit authorities also adopted open-payment systems, PATCO might be able to negotiate lower fees.
"We will not be prepared to move forward until open payment is accepted by larger transit systems, like SEPTA," Spicer said Wednesday.
In other business, the DRPA board put off plans to hire a consultant to investigate whether the agency's salaries and benefits are too high.
Some board members were concerned about the $225,000 price of the proposed compensation study, said chief executive officer John Matheussen. So a proposal to hire the Hay Group of Philadelphia to evaluate DRPA's employee compensation was tabled.
The proposal to conduct such a study was prompted by a push last year to change DRPA practices and governance amid extensive criticism of executive salaries and perquisites. A management audit issued in August urged the DRPA to overhaul its pay and performance-review systems.
Contact staff writer Paul Nussbaum at 215-854-4587 or pnussbaum@phillynews.com.
Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer


text:
ROCKINGHAM PREVIEW
MINI CHALLENGE JCW returnee Nathan Harrison is hoping to put a troubled first round at Oulton Park behind him this weekend by picking up where he left off at Rockingham in 2016.
The JCW field heads to the Corby speedbowl for its second and third rounds this weekend, having only had the single outing at Oulton on Easter Bank Holiday Monday due to heavy and persistent rain cancelling race two.
Harrison endured a mixed bag that day. Having qualified third he rose to lead the race and take the chequered flag first on the road, only to be penalised back to 18th place for a yellow flag infringement. He is currently contesting the penalty so the result remains provisional.
But looking forward, Harrison knows his way around Rockingham, having won the last JCW race he contested there back in 2016 – the season he finished second in the overall championship.
"Oulton was a good weekend, but also a hugely frustrating one," he says. "Losing the win hurt, but it's something that we're not giving up on so it's currently in the hands of the MSA.
"Regardless, we showed we had some real pace at Oulton. Qualifying went well and I proved that my racecraft is still sharp in the MINI, so that's a great sign for the rest of the season.
"Oulton did show that the pecking order this year is going to chop and change quite a lot. There's a load of talent this year, old and new, and I think there's more potential race winners in the field than we've ever had.
"Rockingham will be tricky. It's an oddly short track, with varying grip levels on the banking and the infield. It tends to chew through tyres, so managing those is key.
"Qualifying will be so important this year as if you start in the middle of the pack it'll be very tough to fight your way through. The key with Rockingham is commitment and timing. There's not a huge amount of space and we have a capacity grid, so finding clean air is vital. The tow there is pretty powerful too, but the forecast looks like it'll be wet again, so we're definitely in for a challenge."


text:
Imitation of Life
Hong Kong film offers complex, multileveled meditation on an unrecoverable past
By Jim Ridley
JULY 17, 2000: Three years ago, Film Comment magazine triggered a movie-geek avalanche when it polled a roster of film programmers, distributors, and critics on a simple question: What were the best movies of the 1990s that hadn't been released in America?
To make things simpler, or so they thought, the editors ruled out English-language or American films, figuring those had a better shot at distribution. Even so, the respondents came up with a list of 150 movies that were all but unseen by American audiences. The article sparked (or shamed) distributors into picking up several films on the list, but tracking down most of the films became a sort of rotisserie sport for hardcore movie nuts--the way baseball-card fanatics or comic-book collectors keep checklists of obscure players or series.
The idea of glassy-eyed cinephiles trolling the aisles of Asian grocery stores or back-alley bootleggers is pretty funny. What keeps this quest from becoming another exercise in geeky one-upmanship is the quality of the movies. Of the top 20 films, I've only managed to find about six. But those six were diverse and exciting enough to juice me with the collector's bug Finding these movies (which included John Woo's Vietnam epic Bullet in the Head and Leos Carax's Les Amants du Pont Neuf) adds a thrill of discovery that makes them that much more precious. At the same time, their very obscurity raises a troubling afterthought If something this good can get discarded in the year-to-year, decade-to-decade shuffle of movies, what else out there is lost?
One such MIA movie is Actress, a 1992 biopic by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan. On the Film Comment list, ranked by vote, Actress clocks in at No. 19. Yet its lost-in-the-supermarket status deepens its mysterious poignancy. A hard-to-describe hybrid of documentary, biography, and costume drama, Actress is as much about the vanishing of the early 20th century as about the irretrievable loss of the era's photographic records. For the movie itself to be outside the reach of most viewers, so comparatively soon after its making, is a cruel irony.
Actress, at its most basic level, is a screen biography of Ruan Ling-yu, a stunning film star of the 1930s who was dubbed "the Greta Garbo of Chinese cinema." Molded by male directors, Ruan made her mark playing glamorous "noble" roles; even though her own upbringing was humble, she had to beg to play the prostitutes and working-class heroines of the Shanghai film industry's evolving slate of socially conscious films. But her eventual success in those roles didn't shield her from the gutter press, which pounced on the possibility that she was having an adulterous affair. In 1935, she committed suicide at the height of her beauty and fame. She was 25 years old.
If Actress had simply filled in the sketchy details of Ruan's life--a doomed marriage to a cheating, gambling wastrel (Tony Leung Ka Fai), an affair with a mogul that eventually claimed her career and reputation--it would've made an engrossing high-gloss soap. Instead, director Kwan had the inspiration to present the fragments of Ruan's life in fragments. The movie thus alternates black-and-white Super 8 interviews of Ruan's contemporaries with sumptuous, color-saturated depictions of the tango bars and steamy backrooms of 1930s Shanghai. The effect, as the Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum points out, makes the imagined past more vivid than the grainy present.
Adding to the poetic displacement of past and present is the casting of Maggie Cheung as Ruan. Cheung, a former beauty queen, started out as an ingenue in Jackie Chan's mid-1980s Hong Kong action epics (Chan coproduced Actress); she's perhaps best known to American audiences for the astounding martial-arts fantasy The Heroic Trio. Despite getting parts in early films by Kwan and Wong Kar-wai, though, she had a hard time breaking out of glossy, frivolous roles: According to Rosenbaum, she was a last-minute replacement in Actress for the less "lightweight" Mainland actress Anita Mui. The movie opens with a series of Ruan's production stills, over which Kwan describes the way she was typecast and held back as an actress. When he cuts to Cheung, the modern-day actress wryly observes, "Isn't she a replica of myself?"
Well, yes and no. The difference between Cheung and the real-life Ruan is part of the movie's complex, multileveled depiction of the relationship between the past and the present. Cheung's luminous full-moon face and cool contemporary poise don't match the "real" Ruan, who's shown in silvery scraps from her 1930s films. Instead of downplaying the difference, though, Kwan uses it to convey how little we know about Ruan apart from her film image: Just because we know how she looks doesn't mean we know her. Tellingly, Cheung is introduced not as Ruan but as herself discussing the role with Kwan. We're never meant to think of her as a substitute for the real person, just a thoughtful approximation.
That extends to Kwan's recreations of Ruan's films, many of which have been lost forever. In one scene, he cuts from Cheung as Ruan preparing for her role in 1930's Wayside Flowers to Cheung as Ruan reenacting the film. To emphasize the difference between the two actresses, and between present and past, he cuts from a close-up of Cheung's gorgeous suffering face to a shot of the actual Ruan receding into the shadows; it's as if the Chinese Garbo were refusing to let us see any more of her, wanting to be alone. When Kwan stages reenactments of the early films, only to stamp them with the legend "Film no longer available," he mourns more than just the loss of the celluloid; he commemorates another piece of our past that will forever remain a mystery.
So much of our sense of the immediate and distant past comes from the imaginings of filmmakers. We hear Woodward and Bernstein; we think Redford and Hoffman. We picture the Reconstruction era in the grainy images of D.W. Griffith, and the parting of the Red Sea in run-of-DeMille Technicolor. In some cases, as newsreels and silent films crumble into dust every year, the vestiges of remembered images are all that's left. Watching the awkwardly "reconstructed" four-hour cut of Erich von Stroheim's mutilated Greed on TCM last year, you were left with a glimpse of artistic glory that might have been--and the fistfuls of dust that represent an evaporated, unrecoverable past. Actress tantalizes us with pieces of that past and the sense of what we've lost. Ironically, the print that will show in Nashville is already significantly shorter than the 166-minute Asian version; the cut scenes reportedly show discussions between Maggie Cheung and Stanley Kwan--precisely the kind of archival footage we'll never see of Ruan Ling-yu. Yet even this version is worth seeing--while you have the chance, before it too is gone.
Nashville Scene's Film Lede Archives
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Higgs Boson: A Discovery Aided by Composites
Jamie Hartford
Carbon fiber composites enable critical physics discovery
This summer, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced a discovery that could answer fundamental questions about the universe, and they couldn't have done it without composites.
The Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that could explain the origin of mass, was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator, with help from the ATLAS Experiment, a particle detector used to measure the collisions made by the LHC. When protons slam into each other, they create hundreds of other types of particles. The ATLAS Experiment uses layers of sensors to measure properties such as the trajectory and momentum of the particles. As the particles pass through the sensors, which are generally made of silicon, they create a charge, allowing the sensors to take snapshots of what's happening at a precision of about 10 microns, or about one-half of one-thousandth of an inch, at intervals of 25-billionths of a second.
"The data is filtered and then eventually recorded and analyzed by computers all over the world," says Murdock Gilchriese, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), one of many labs around the world that collaborate with CERN. He is part of a team that works to create carbon fiber composite structures to support the sensors inside the ATLAS Experiment.
Carbon fiber composites were chosen for this important task in part because they have high strength but low mass and low weight, which helps reduce interference between particles and matter inside the detector.
"The particles that go through matter don't just go through matter; they interact or scatter," Gilchriese says. "The lighter the material, the less they do that."
Carbon fiber also has high thermal conductivity, which comes in handy because the sensors inside the detector function best at low temperatures, around –10 to –15 C. The composite structures help to channel heat generated by the collisions away from the electronics to a thin-walled metal tube filled with coolant. New types of carbon fiber structures are needed for the next generation of upgraded tracking detectors planned for the CERN experiments.
The structures themselves are like sandwiches of carbon foam and carbon fiber to which sensors are glued. They begin with low-density glassy carbon foam, which has thermal conductivity that is not much better than that of air. Californiabased Allcomp Inc. then processes the foam with a chemical vapor deposition heat treatment to add layers of carbon to the native carbon foam. This process increases the foam's density to around 0.2 grams per cubic centimeter, improving its thermal conductivity by more than 200 times. The foam is made in blocks that are then sliced into sheets and machined to the lab's specifications.
September – October 2012 Issue
Old Money in New Cars
FRP Reaches Record Heights
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Claudia Brassard enters the Fire
Alanna Jarry Apr 19, 2016
Image Credit: Townsville Fire
The Townsville Fire have appointed a new head coach, Claudia Brassard. The former assistant coach steps in as the successor to the departing coach Chris Lucas, as he announced earlier this month his plans to move back home to Adelaide to be with his family.
Lucas, who guided the Fire to 4 grand finals and 2 Championships in just 5 seasons, has set an extremely high benchmark for Brassard to maintain. However Brassard is certainly up to the challenge, possessing a depth of knowledge from her own experience as a player and being the second-in-charge to Lucas.
Talking to the Townsville Bulletin, Brassard said, "From the moment I arrived at the Fire, I have loved this club. I have loved this city and I have always harboured ambitions to coach this team in my own right one day."
"I feel like I have learnt a lot under Chris and I am up for the challenge of trying to maintain our continued success."
As a former Olympian for her home country Canada, Brassard is an experienced WNBL player. She spent five seasons with the Fire, two seasons as captain, earning an MVP award in that time.
Brassard grasped an opportunity for a test run as head coach in the 2015/16 season, stepping in for 3 games in the absence of Lucas, currently boasting an umblemished record.
Brassard's tenure with the Fire will be focused on building upon her pristine record, with some of their most prominent players in Micaela Cocks, Mia Murray and Darcee Garbin all extending their contracts with the Fire. The dominant Suzy Batkovic will also be up and firing as captain of Townsville as she heads into her final season of her current contract.
There's no doubt Lucas has shouldered the load and been integral in facilitating the Fire's recent era of success. His departure exposes the entire club to change and possibly some re-structuring of the team and their style of play. It will be a massive test for the players to maintain their stunning form, and for Brassard in keeping the Fire at the pointy end of the ladder next season.
I'm tipping their level of experience, talent and quality leaders will still be the benchmark for the entire league, still holding their position as the team to beat.


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Findley Lake
Findley Lake, NY
January, the same as December, in Findley Lake, New York, is a freezing cold winter month, with an average temperature varying between 29.5°F (-1.4°C) and 20.7°F (-6.3°C). January is the coldest month, with an average high-temperature of 29.5°F (-1.4°C) and an average low-temperature of 20.7°F (-6.3°C). Weather in January »
February, the last month of the winter in Findley Lake, is another freezing cold month, with an average temperature varying between 21°F (-6.1°C) and 31.1°F (-0.5°C). In Findley Lake, New York, the average high-temperature in February is relatively the same as in January - a still subzero cold 31.1°F (-0.5°C). Weather in February »
The first month of the spring, March, is a wintry month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature ranging between min 27.7°F (-2.4°C) and max 38.8°F (3.8°C). In March, the average high-temperature marginally rises from a subzero cold 31.1°F (-0.5°C) in February to a wintry 38.8°F (3.8°C). Weather in March »
April is a chilly spring month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature ranging between min 37.2°F (2.9°C) and max 49.3°F (9.6°C). In Findley Lake, the average high-temperature in April increases from a cold 38.8°F (3.8°C) in March to a frosty 49.3°F (9.6°C). Weather in April »
The last month of the spring, May, is an enjoyable month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature varying between 48.4°F (9.1°C) and 60.8°F (16°C). In Findley Lake, New York, the average high-temperature in May rises from a chilly 49.3°F (9.6°C) in April to an enjoyable 60.8°F (16°C). Weather in May »
June, the first month of the summer in Findley Lake, is an agreeable month, with temperature in the range of an average high of 68.7°F (20.4°C) and an average low of 56.7°F (13.7°C). In June, the average high-temperature slightly increases from an enjoyable 60.8°F (16°C) in May to a pleasant 68.7°F (20.4°C). Weather in June »
July is a moderately hot summer month in Findley Lake, New York, with temperature in the range of an average high of 75°F (23.9°C) and an average low of 63°F (17.2°C). July is the warmest month, with an average high-temperature of 75°F (23.9°C) and an average low-temperature of 63°F (17.2°C). Weather in July »
The last month of the summer, August, is another warm month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature ranging between max 74.5°F (23.6°C) and min 62.4°F (16.9°C). In Findley Lake, the average high-temperature in August is essentially the same as in July - a still moderately hot 74.5°F (23.6°C). Weather in August »
The first month of the autumn, September, is still a pleasant month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature ranging between max 69.4°F (20.8°C) and min 57.2°F (14°C). In September, the average high-temperature is essentially the same as in August - a pleasant 69.4°F (20.8°C). Weather in September »
October, like September, is another mild autumn month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature fluctuating between 57.9°F (14.4°C) and 47.5°F (8.6°C). In Findley Lake, the average high-temperature in October decreases from an agreeable 69.4°F (20.8°C) in September to a moderate 57.9°F (14.4°C). Weather in October »
November, the last month of the autumn in Findley Lake, is another chilly month, with an average temperature varying between 36.3°F (2.4°C) and 45.3°F (7.4°C). In November, the average high-temperature drops from a mild 57.9°F (14.4°C) in October to a chilly 45.3°F (7.4°C). Weather in November »
The first month of the winter, December, is also a wintry month in Findley Lake, New York, with an average temperature varying between 28.6°F (-1.9°C) and 36.1°F (2.3°C). In December, the average high-temperature decreases from a frosty 45.3°F (7.4°C) in November to a cold 36.1°F (2.3°C). Weather in December »
What is the coldest month in Findley Lake?
The coldest month is January, with an average high-temperature of 29.5°F (-1.4°C) and an average low-temperature of 20.7°F (-6.3°C).
How many days does it rain in Findley Lake?
In Findley Lake, during the entire year, the rain falls for 169.5 days and collects up to 25.87" (657mm) of precipitation.
When does it snow in Findley Lake?
January through May, October through December are months with snowfall in Findley Lake, New York.
How much does it snow in Findley Lake?
Throughout the year, there are 71.3 snowfall days, and 18.54" (471mm) of snow is accumulated.
What is the month with the least sunshine in Findley Lake?
With an average of 2.3h of sunshine, January has the least sunshine of the year in Findley Lake.
What are the months with the lowest UV index in Findley Lake?
The months with the lowest UV index are January and December, with an average maximum UV index of 1.
What is the most humid month in Findley Lake?
The most humid month in Findley Lake is February, with an average relative humidity of 87%.
What is the snowiest month in Findley Lake?
February is the month with the most snowfall. Snow falls for 15.7 days and accumulates 4.88" (124mm) of snow.
What is the driest month in Findley Lake?
March is the month with the least rainfall. Rain falls for 12.7 days and accumulates 1.73" (44mm) of precipitation.
When is Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Findley Lake?
On Sunday, March 12. 2023, at 2:00 am, Daylight Saving Time starts in Findley Lake, and the time zone changes from EST to EDT. Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, November 5. 2023, at 2:00 am, and the time zone reverts from EDT to EST.
When it does not snow in Findley Lake?
In Findley Lake, snow does not fall in June through September.
When are the longest days in Findley Lake?
The month with the longest days in Findley Lake, New York, is June, with an average of 15h and 12min of daylight.
What is the warmest month in Findley Lake?
With an average high-temperature of 75°F (23.9°C) and an average low-temperature of 63°F (17.2°C), July is the warmest month in Findley Lake, New York.
What month has the most sunshine in Findley Lake?
With an average of 10.4h of sunshine, July has the most sunshine of the year.
When is the highest UV index in Findley Lake?
With an average maximum UV index of 6, July is the month with the highest UV index.
What are the least humid months in Findley Lake?
August through November, with an average relative humidity of 79%, are the least humid months in Findley Lake.
What is the rainiest month in Findley Lake?
The month with the most rainfall in Findley Lake is October, when the rain falls for 18.6 days and typically aggregates up to 2.72" (69mm) of precipitation.
What is the month with the shortest days in Findley Lake?
The month with the shortest days is December, with an average of 9h and 10min of daylight.
The warmest month (with the highest average high temperature) is July (75°F).
The month with the highest average low temperature is July (63°F).
The windiest month (with the highest average wind speed) is January (13mph).
The month with the highest relative humidity is February (87%).
The months with the lowest relative humidity are August, September, October and November (79%).
The wettest month (with the highest rainfall) is October (2.72").
The driest month (with the least rainfall) is March (1.73").
The month with the least rainy days is January (7.8 days).
The month with the most sunshine days is May (11.7 days).
The months with the least cloud cover are July and August (Cloud cover 29).
Findley Lake, New York - Climate and weather forecast by month. Detailed climate information with charts - average monthly weather with temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, wind, daylight, sunshine, visibility, and UV index data. [2371636]


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Critical Missing Person
"Critical Missing Person"
Northridge: On Friday, September 15, 2000, Ms. Shirley Mae Mercer was reported missing from her residence at 18343 Blackhawk Street in Northridge. She was last seen on September 15, 2000 at approximately 3:30 a.m. at her residence. Ms. Mercer is described as a female Black, approximately 6 feet tall, and weighing approximately 300 lbs. She is 58 years of age and has black and gray hair and brown eyes. The missing person has a diminished mental capacity and is a diagnosed schizophrenic. She is currently taking medication for a potential life-threatening illness.
Anyone with information should contact the Watch Commander at Devonshire Community Police Station at 818-756-8285 or Detective Kuehl, Missing Persons Unit at 213-485-3261.
This press release was prepared by Public Information Officer Jason Lee, Media Relations Section 213-485-3586.
For Release 5:00 pm PDT


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Istanbul blanketed in snow as storm hits transport
City becomes picturesque playground as up to 30cm of snow falls in some areas, leading to airport, ferry and road closures
Tourists take a photo with the Blue Mosque turned white as the backdrop (AFP)
Published date: 31 December 2015 17:52 UTC | Last update: 7 years 1 month ago
Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Thursday from Istanbul's two main airports after the city was hit by a snowfall on the last day of the year.
The heavy snowfall left the city veiled under a curtain of white with snow covering the domes of mosques and the hills by the Bosphorus.
Tourists flocked to take pictures of the city at its most wintry.
But Turkish Airlines said it had cancelled 265 domestic and international flights from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport as well as 37 at Sabiha Gokcen airport on the Asian side of the city.
Private carrier Pegasus Airlines also cancelled 34 flights in-and-out of Sabiha Gokcen.
Some planes circled above Istanbul for more than two hours before landing at Ataturk Airport, while others queued for extended periods waiting to take off, Dogan news agency said.
Istanbul had a thick covering of snow by early Thursday, while almost 30cm fell in some parts of the city, causing disruptions to transport services and the closure of several roads.
All ferry services across the Bosphorus were been cancelled, city authorities said, warning citizens against non-essential travel.
At least one person was killed and dozens of others injured in a pile-up of 20 vehicles on a major highway in Istanbul, Dogan news agency said.
According to emergency services, at least 73 accidents have occurred in Istanbul since the snowfall began Wednesday.
Schools have also been shut down in more than 30 provinces across Turkey, including Istanbul.
Roads to more than 1,000 villages were closed in eastern Anatolia due to heavy snowfall while 765 villages were inaccessible in northeastern Turkey.
Temperatures across the eastern part of the country Thursday will drop to as low as minus 20C, weather authorities said. The snowfall is expected to last until midday on New Year's Day.
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THE EDF GROUP ANNOUNCES COMMISSIONING OF THE...
THE EDF GROUP ANNOUNCES COMMISSIONING OF THE DONGTAI V OFFSHORE WIND FARM IN CHINA
The EDF Group and China Energy Investment Corporation (CEI), its Chinese partner, are announcing the commissioning of the 200 MW Dongtai V offshore wind farm. Located in the China Sea, off the Jiangsu coast, North of Shanghai, its construction took 20 months.
Together with the 300 MW Dongtai IV wind farm commissioned in December 2019, the Group now operates 500 MW in offshore wind capacity in China. The Dongtai IV and V wind farms lie approximately 40 km off the Jiangsu coast, the most advanced province in offshore technology, and operate 125 wind turbines which will generate electricity covering the annual needs of 2 million local inhabitants.
The joint venture between CEI and the EDF Group (37.5%) operates both the Dongtai IV and V wind farms. It is the first Sino-French joint venture dedicated to the development and operation of offshore wind energy projects in China.
These two recently commissioned projects illustrate the rapid growth in China's offshore wind market. China ranked second in the global league table for capacity installed in 2020 with 9.9 GW. Its goal is to install more than 40 GW by 2030 in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
The EDF Group has brought to the Dongtai project its recognized experience in offshore wind energy gained thanks to 10 years' of experience and a projects portfolio of more than 6.5 GW in capacity in operation, under construction or development, both in Europe, the birthplace of offshore wind energy, and in the United States and in China, other markets with major potentials. The EDF Group, a longstanding partner to China, has been present in the country for more than 35 years now and operates in other segments of the energy market, such as nuclear, thermal power, distribution networks, heating and air conditioning networks.
Bruno Bensasson, EDF Group Senior Executive Vice President Renewable Energies and Chairman & CEO of EDF Renewables, commented: "The EDF Group is delighted to strengthen its historical positions in China through the completion of the Dongtai offshore wind project together with our Chinese partner, CEI. We are committed to supporting the country achieve its energy goals and to furthering the development of decarbonised energy. This new Dongtai V offshore wind project represents another step forward for the EDF Group's CAP 2030 strategy, which aims to double its net installed energy capacity worldwide from 28 GW in 2015 to 60 GW in 2030.".
The EDF Group in China
The EDF Group has been active in China for over 35 years and operates in several segments of the energy market:
Nuclear: under a joint venture with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), the Group builds and operates both EPR reactors at the Taishan nuclear power plant (3.5 GW). The first of these reactors was commissioned in December 2018 and the second in September 2019. The facility provides low-carbon electricity to around 5 million Chinese consumers. EDF also provides operational assistance to the CGN group covering its entire generating base.
Renewable energies: Since 2016, the EDF Group has been active via its subsidiary EDF Renewables in onshore and offshore wind, and in solar power generations (generation distributed to commercial and industrial customer sites). The gross capacity of its generating assets currently stands at 2 GW.
Energy services: Since 2016, EDF has operated a heating network serving 8 million m² of housing in Sanmenxia (Henan province). In the neighbouring city of Lingbao, EDF operates a 35 MW cogeneration facility, which supplies heating and electricity. In 2021, the Group commissioned two centralised air conditioning networks serving hotels in a tourist area on the tropical island of Hainan and the new business district in Jinan (capital of Shandong province). EDF also manages 100,000 street lights in the city of Kunming (south-western China).
Thermal: EDF owns minority shareholdings in three companies operating thermal power plants.
About EDF
As a major player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated energy company active in all businesses: generation, transmission, distribution, energy trading, energy sales and energy services. EDF group is a world leader in low-carbon energy, having developed a diverse production mix based mainly on nuclear and renewable energy (including hydropower). It is also investing in new technologies to support energy transition. EDF's raison d'être is to build a net zero energy future with electricity and innovative solutions and services, to help save the planet and drive well-being and economic development. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 37.9 million customers (1), of whom 28.7 million in France (2). It generated consolidated sales of €69.0 billion in 2020. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.
(1) Since 2018, customers are counted per delivery site. A customer can have two delivery points: one for electricity and another one for gas.
(2) Including ÉS (Électricité de Strasbourg).
About EDF Renewables
EDF Renewables is an international leader in renewable energies, with gross installed capacity of 13.8 GW worldwide. Its development is mainly focused on wind and solar photovoltaic power. EDF Renewables operates mostly in Europe and North America but is continuing to grow by moving into promising emerging regions such as Brazil, China, India, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East. The company has strong positions in offshore wind power, but also in other areas of the renewable energies industry such as energy storage. EDF Renewables develops, builds, operates and maintains renewable energies projects, both for itself and for third parties.
For more information, visit: www.edf-renewables.com Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edf-renewables and on Twitter (@EDF_RE in French and @EDF_Renewables in English).
Energy is our future, save it !


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Assimos named first chair of urology at UAB
by Bob Shepard
Dean Assimos named first chair of new UAB Department of Urology.
Dean G. Assimos, M.D., has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Urology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
Assimos is an internationally known researcher and clinician, who comes to UAB from Wake Forest University where he was vice chair of urology. He received his undergraduate degree from Purdue and, in 1977, his medical degree from the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago.
Assimos completed a six-year residency in urology at Northwestern University in 1983. He was a fellow in renal reconstructive surgery and stone disease at Wake Forest University the following year and then an American Urological Association research scholar from 1984 to 1986.
"I am excited about Dr. Assimos' vision for the department and his plans to enhance the current clinical, educational and research programs of urology during this transition from division to department," said Ray Watts, M.D., senior vice president and dean of the UAB School of Medicine. "This is a significant milestone for Urology, the School of Medicine, the Health System and UAB."
Previously a division within the Department of Surgery, the Department of Urology was created by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System in April 2012.
"My goals and vision for the Department of Urology at UAB include developing a program that is regionally, nationally and internationally recognized for providing excellent patient care in all domains of urology," Assimos said. "We will cultivate a stimulating educational environment for medical students, graduate students, residents, fellows and post-docs, as well as practicing urologists and the public. On the research front, we will establish clinical, translational and basic research programs that include studies of both benign urologic conditions as well as genitourinary malignancies with a goal of being in the upper tier of federal funding."
Assimos has been actively involved in the establishment of practice guidelines in urology. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Endourology, and he contributes to the urologic survey section of the Journal of Urology. He is an NIH-funded physician scientist whose research has focused on endogenous oxalate synthesis of and the role of dietary oxalate in kidney-stone formation.
His clinical practice is concentrated on the surgical management of patients with complex calculous disease, ureteral reconstruction and metabolic stone evaluation and treatment.
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Culture , News & Politics
Kiera Wilmot Avoids Prison, But Now What?
Kiera Wilmot
By #TeamEBONY | May 16, 2013
The initial thought behind 'zero tolerance' policies in schools was that children with consistent discipline issues would make up most suspensions. However, 'model students' can also become entangled in mandatory school punishments.
On April 22, 2013, 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot was expelled from her South Florida high school for creating small 'explosive' by mixing household chemicals and a small wad of aluminum foil. Further, Florida's state attorney charged her with felonies equal to if she had discharged a firearm and a 'weapon of mass destruction' on school property. Interestingly, Wilmot's principal Ron Pritchard was disturbed by the harshness of the school district's punishment.
Following national outrage at the severity of the consequences for what could be described as little more than poor judgment and bad timing on the part of a bright student with a healthy interest in science, the State Attorney's office announced yesterday that they were dropping the charges against Wilmot. Though details of the arraingement have yet to be released, the Orlando Sentinel says the teen likely agreed to community service and other conditional terms in order to avoid prosecution. Meanwhile, family attorney Larry Hardaway tells the newspaper that he will now focus on getting her back into her school.
Wilmot's experience has shined a light on the impact of school practices regarding discipline—and called attention to the need for greater access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) opportunities. In an effort to show a strong stance on discipline issues, many schools have instituted zero-tolerance policies. These rules have had a disproportionate impact on poor, special education and minority students. Social scientists and civil rights organizations have coined the phrase 'school-to-prison' to highlight the impact of zero-tolerance policies on minority and underserved communities.
Pointing out these disparities in punishments can lead to better enforcement of discipline infractions at school while keeping students in the classroom. A report by the University of California-Los Angeles Center for Civil Rights Remedies highlights the increased likelihood that Black students will be suspended. Daniel J. Losen, director of the center and one of the study's authors, tells, USA Today, "A lot of the time the public has a sense that we have to suspend these 'bad' kids—what else are we going to do?"
"But this study shows that within the same district, within the same demographics, there are schools that are doing things very differently."
Moreover, the study points out actions that parents, advocates, schools and governing bodies can take to correct disparities in suspensions. Otherwise, our country will continue to see high drop-out rates and the associated societal problems.
Many scientists are outraged by the severity of Wilmot's punishment and arrest, some showing solidarity by tweeting about things that they have blown-up and using the hashtags #Solidarity4Wilmot and #KieraWilmot. Most scientists have expressed outrage that she has been dealt with so harshly and have implored the school administration and other school districts to turn the situation in a 'teachable moment.' Although, her science project could have caused injuries (chemical burns from the hydrochloric acid in the toilet cleaner had any made contact with skin), by all accounts Wilmot took care to conduct the experimental trial away from crowds. Her actions definitely called for an intervention and perhaps a punishment from the school administration; however proposing multiple criminal charges and filing them as an adult is considered an over-reach by all scientists I have discussed this matter with.
We are also very concerned with how our children are taught STEM. At age 16, Wilmot should have had enough science instruction to know that performing an unsupervised 'science experiment' can be dangerous to her and others. Further, attempting or executing an unregulated experiment on campus runs the risk of disciplinary action. On the surface following best practices will prevent most incidences of harm; however, this does not mean that students should not be allowed to make mistakes. Helping students avoid disastrous choices is the best approach; however, we also have to insure that young people do not have their lives derailed over correctable missteps.
In Wilmot's case, we are witnessing a student with an overall 'A' average exiting school, being redirected into an alternative program for at-risk students, and intitally facing jail time. Many consider this to be a classic school-to-prison situation. Rather than allowing the school principal to apply discretion based on Wilmot's intent combined the result of her 'science experiment,' the school board executed an expulsion order. To most this seems as an unreasonable way to punish a student for an unsanctioned 'science project.' Alternate punishments, would have included a suspension and community service that allowed Wilmot to speak to other students about operating outside of the controlled environment of science classroom or laboratory. Additionally, she could have been required to volunteer with local scientists, who would also serve as science mentors to her, and she could have been taught to safely channel her enthusiasm for STEM.
Unfortunately, expulsion is unforgiving for students in the United States. Unless, Wilmot can transfer to another school district or to a private school that is willing to allow her to remain in her projected graduating class, she is likely to fall behind. Had her story not made headlines, one wonders if she still would be facing incarceration. Jail time would suspend her high school experience, and likely result in her working to obtain a graduate equivalency degree (GED). We would witness another young person that has demonstrated excellence in the classroom and outside of it become another case of 'she could have been…' How did we become a society that allows so many our young people to strike-out on the first missed swing?
Dr. Caleph B. Wilson is a biomedical sciences postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and co-chair of the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council. In addition to his work as a scientist, he participates in outreach programs to promote STEM, through mentoring, science education and professional development advisements. Follow him on Twitter: @HeyDrWilson
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https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/2798/explr006-beginning-hiking-and-the-appalachian-mountain-club.mp3
XPLR006 – Beginning Hiking and the Appalachian Mountain Club
May 17, 2019 By Uncharted
Chris Thayer of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) helps you get started with hiking. Uncharted Podcast host Joe Burkhead and guest Chris Thayer, Director of North Country Programs and Outreach Listen…
XPLR005 – Telling Your Story
April 5, 2019 By Uncharted
https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/2763/xplr005-telling-your-story.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 49:56 | Recorded on April 5, 2019
Uncharted Podcast welcomes Uncharted CEO Alan Murray back to the show to talk about storytelling for explorers. He offers tips and advice to help you capture and retain the most Listen…
XPLR004 – Avalanche Awareness
December 31, 2018 By Uncharted
https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/2652/avalanche-awareness.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1:01:07 | Recorded on December 31, 2018
Uncharted welcomes Cody Hughes from the Utah Avalanche Center to the show to discuss avalanche awareness and the Know Before You Go avalanche safety and awareness effort. Have you ever Listen…
XPLR003 – Learn a New Language
March 23, 2018 By Uncharted
https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/1505/xplr003-learn-new-language.mp3
Have you ever wanted to learn a new language but need help knowing how to start? Or have you already started learning a language but can use advice and tips Listen…
XPLR002 – Fat Biking, Winter Mountain Biking, and Slickrock Trail
January 7, 2019 By Uncharted
https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/1289/xplr002-fat-biking-winter-mountain-biking-slickrock-trail.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1:15:44 | Recorded on February 8, 2017
Uncharted Podcast delves into fat biking, winter mountain biking and the Slickrock trail. Explore: Biking expert Andrew Brannon introduces Fat Tire Mountain Biking (fat biking) and winter mountain biking. He Listen…
XPLR001 – Uncharted Intro, Un-comfort Zones and Stopping to Listen
https://www.uncharted.net/podcast-player/1291/xplr001-uncharted-intro-un-comfort-zones-stopping-listen.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1:02:36 | Recorded on March 25, 2015
In Uncharted's first-ever podcast, the host, "GeoJoe," introduces Uncharted and the podcast. Explore: Award-winning photojournalist and Uncharted's leader, Alan Murray, discusses how photography and getting out of your comfort zone Listen…


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Media Creation Tool and MSDN Win10 Versions Diverge
Build 10586/1511 Makes Its Debut: Lessons Learned – SearchEnterpriseDesktop
Simple Versioning Numbers in Win10 Presage Deployment... – SearchEnterpriseDesktop
Updates Galore on 11/10/15, but No Build 10586! – SearchEnterpriseDesktop
Analyst's take: New Microsoft Visual Studio Team System offers more benefits to... –ComputerWeekly.com
A Computer Weekly buyer's guide to evergreen IT –ComputerWeekly.com
There's been a whole lotta hoopla over the past few days about the sudden disappearance of Version 1511 (Build 10586) from the Media Creation Tool late Friday, 11/21. Of the many stories published on this topic, the items from Ed Bott at ZDnet and Peter Bright from Ars Technica, are especially interesting. Current speculation on the reasoning behind this surprise move from the Colossus of Redmond seems to center around the notion that as-yet-undocumented bugs in this new release have prompted the decision to yank the images from the Media Creation Tool, and to revert to Version 1507, better known as Build 10240.
Being myself of a curious nature, I zipped on over to MSDN where Build 1511 also made its appearance on November 12, to see if it had been pulled from that subscribers-only download mecca as well. Here's what I found:
Version 1511 remains readily available on MSDN, as of early AM Texas time 11/24.
This may just mean that MS hasn't gotten around to pulling these files just yet, so it will be interesting to watch what happens to MSDN over the next day or two. It may also mean that the speculations about the bugginess of 1511 may be somewhat over-stated. For my own part, I've been running 1511 on my Technical Preview test machines for three or four weeks now without any obvious issues, and on all six of my regular Windows PCs (three desktops, a Surface Pro 3, an All-in-One, and a Lenovo X220 tablet) likewise since 11/13 or thereabouts.
While we're all waiting for the dust to settle, I'd like describe fact and history as we know them at present. Previously, MS has only updated installers for major version changes and Service Packs, and such updates have propagated to the Media Creation Tool (let's abbreviate this as MCT, and further observe that it is a utility of fairly new provenance, with roots only as far back as Windows 8.1, though Windows 8 did offer similar functionality under a different name) and MSDN in tandem. If the 1511 release counts as a "Service-Pack-like" update to Windows 10, then indeed it makes sense for it to be made available via the MCT and MSDN. Given that the two sources are currently divergent, I'd expect something else to pop up on the MCT front, to catch it up with MSDN. Or, we could be looking at a new regime for Windows 10, where the subscribers have access to releases not made available to the general public. Again: it should be interesting to keep watching, and see which way the mop flops next. According to neowin.net, 1511 is still supposed to be available through Windows Update, though some users have not been able to access it through that delivery mechanism (but that might be a function of a 10240 install that is less than 31 days old, and thus ineligible for WU to offer the upgrade, to give users 30 days to revert to the previous installation).
[Update: 8:45 AM CDT 11/24] Paul Thurrott points to an 11/20 System Center Configuration Manager Team Blog entitled "Issue with the Windows ADK for Windows 10, version 1511" as a possible explanation for why MS yanked the update from MCT. It affects multiple releases of the product and includes the statement "we do not recommend that Configuration Manager customers use the 1511 version of the Windows 10 ADK" (ADK stands for Assessment and Deployment Kit, a collection of tools that sysadmins can use to customize, assess and deploy Windows OSes to new computers). He may be right that this explains the current back-pedaling, and I believe he's also right to speculate that "bringing back integrated installs will happen in the future."
[Update: 2:30 PM CDT 11/24] Windows info site Tenforums.com cites MS MVP Greg Carmack's reports of activation issues with V.1511/Build 10586 as possible cause for switching the MCT from 10586 back to 10240 (and possibly also for making them temporarily off-limits through Windows Update, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding). Read the whole thread for some whacky and entertaining conspiracy theories.